aders to get a fuller insight into their character, and their moral
influence upon the people.

The next thing which occurs to us in connection with the present
subject, is cursing; and here again Paddy holds the first place. His
imprecations are often full, bitter, and intense. Indeed, there is more
poetry and epigrammatic point in them than in those of any other country
in the world.

We find it a difficult thing to enumerate the Irish curses, so as to do
justice to a subject so varied and so liable to be shifted and improved
by the fertile genius of those who send them abroad. Indeed, to reduce
them into order and method would be a task of considerable difficulty.
Every occasion, and every fit of passion, frequently produce a new
curse, perhaps equal in bitterness to any that has gone before it.

Many of the Irish imprecations are difficult to be understood, having
their origin in some historical event, or in poetical metaphors that
require a considerable process of reasoning to explain them. Of this
twofold class is that general one, "The curse of Cromwell on you!" which
means, may you suffer all that a tyrant like Cromwell would inflict! and
"The curse o'the crows upon you!" which is probably an allusion to
the Danish invasion--a raven being the symbol of Denmark; or it may be
tantamount to "May you rot on the hills, that the crows may feed upon
your carcass!" Perhaps it may thus be understood to imprecate death upon
you or some member of your house--alluding to the superstition of rooks
hovering over the habitations of the sick, when the malady with which
they are afflicted is known to be fatal. Indeed, the latter must
certainly be the meaning of it, as is evident from the proverb of "Die,
an' give the crow a puddin'."

"Hell's cure to you!--the devil's luck to you!--high hanging to
you!--hard feeling to you!--a short coorse to you!" are all pretty
intense, and generally used under provocation and passion. In these
cases the curses just mentioned are directed immediately to the
offensive object, and there certainly is no want of the _malus animus_
to give them energy. It would be easy to multiply the imprecations
belonging to this class among the peasantry, but the task is rather
unpleasant. There are a few, however, which, in consequence of their
ingenuity, we cannot pass over: they are, in sooth, studies for the
swearer. "May you never die till you see your own funeral!" is a very
beautiful specimen of the p